Honorary Fellows: Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Jocelyn Bell Burnell has made many exceptional contributions to physics, as ground breaking researcher, as a leader of learned societies and as an inspirational ambassador for public engagement.

As a PhD student at Cambridge University she was involved in opening up a new branch of astrophysics through her involvement in the discovery of pulsars. She has used telescopes flown on high altitude balloons, launched on rockets which carried satellites and built a radio telescope in Cambridgeshire.

Bell Burnell is a well-known figure in the world of public understanding of science. She was patron of the IOP’s Einstein Year programme. In 2010 she was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday prize for excellence in communicating science. Much in demand as a speaker and broadcaster, she now gives upwards of 40 outreach lectures each year. She has been an inspirational figure in encouraging women into science and in 1999 she toured Australia giving the Women in Physics lecture.

Jocelyn has served on many boards and panels throughout Europe, including serving as President of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics.